Overview

Media Arts students make movies. Simultaneously, they study the work of great filmmakers and examine the most significant moments in cinema history. Alfred Hitchcock, the French New Wave, film comedy, science fiction, film noir and German Expressionism are just a few of the fascinating topics they explore through their writing and art making.

The Media Arts curriculum offers a broad foundation in visual culture, emphasizing the aesthetic achievements and cultural contexts of the movies students make and discuss.

Transdisciplinary in nature, our offerings resonate with current practices in history, cultural studies, literary theory, visual and performing arts studies, anthropology, psychology, sociology, political theory, women and gender studies, and even science studies. Through these lenses we encourage analysis and thoughtful representation of the way “race” and ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, and other elements of our identities intersect in cinema and video.

Given the global nature of moving images, we also offer students an outlook that is international as well as interdisciplinary. To learn about world cinema is to explore diverse cultures. Our curriculum includes courses devoted to various national and regional cinemas. Students interested in Exilic, Postcolonial, or “Third World” studies, for instance, will find a number of courses to serve their needs. With such coursework, our department seeks to collaborate with a variety of academic departments such as Spanish and Portuguese and American Studies, where transcultural work is similarly promoted.

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